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Latest update: 20/09/2009
- floods - France - Natural disaster
South of France sees worst floods in 50 years
Authorities in the South of France are cleaning up and assessing the material damage caused by the worst floods in the region for half-a-century.
Officials in the south of France Sunday are assessing the damage caused by violent storms over the weekend that swept away hundreds of vehicles, forced dozens to evacuate their homes and caused extensive damage, in the worst flooding in the region in 50 years.
Authorities briefly raised the alert level to “orange” on Saturday as floodwaters caused rivers to burst their banks in the Cote d’Azur area.
During a visit to Sainte Maxime, a tourist resort particularly hard-hit by the storms, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux announced that an emergency fund of a million euros was being made available.
The Mayor of Sainte-Maxime described an ocean swell like “a tsunami” and said some 400 vehicles were swept away by the floods.
In the south western region, torrential rains lashed the Basque area disrupting transportation, particularly rail traffic.
Local officials in the town of Bayonne in the Basque area indicated that they would ask government authorities to declare the town a natural disaster zone.
Authorities in the Var region said around 180 people were currently unable to work as industrial and commercial buildings around Sainte Maxime have been damaged.
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Comments (2)
disgusting...
wasting money - millions - on a vaccination program for that "swine flu", spending millions on a communication campaign to scare citizens and to make sure that the ones in charge won't be accused later of "letting people" die as it happened in 2003... All that money wasted on "pseudo preventive measures" and here, some people suffer genuinely - if not physically - because they lost most of what they have, years of work, their house and "one million in being made available". Am I the only one finding it unfair ? Aren't more people shocked at this new measurement system ?
damn that left who wants to save everyone from a vulgar flu and who don't acknolewdge the worth of work... And mince, am I disappointed in our government who plays that game. Disgusting....
floods in south of france
when did this occur abd was st tropez or sainte maxime affected?